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Game Changer: In 30 years, the 3-point shot has transformed high school hoops

By , Columbian Sports Editor
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This story is part of The Columbian’s High School Winter Sports 2017-18 Preview, available in the Sunday, Dec. 17 print edition.

Sonny Long remembers the novelty license plate on one of his players’ cars.

The year was 1987. Long was 22 years into a 30-year coaching career at Lake Oswego High School in Oregon. The buzz was all about the new rule in high school basketball.

That license plate read 19-9 — as in 19 feet, 9 inches. As in the distance to the brand new 3-point line, which gave Long’s guard another weapon to boast about on the hardwood and the bumper of his car.

Thirty years later, the 3-point shot is no longer a novelty. Few changes have impacted their sport more than its addition.

“It’s such a big part of basketball,” said Union boys coach Blake Conley. “It’s how you win games. It’s how you lose games.”

The 3-point line was added to the college game for the 1986-87 season. One year later, the high school game adopted the rule.

Thirty years later, the 3-point shot is such an important part of Union’s offense that starting guards Tyler Combs and Zach Reznick take a majority of their shots from beyond the arc.

The Titans tandem aren’t alone in letting it fly from long range. According to a study by hoops analytics website basketball-reference.com, the 3-pointer is the second best shot to attempt behind a layup when you compare the shot’s risk to its reward.

The 3-point shot has made short players bigger. It has knocked the once-dominant role of the big man down a notch.

It has left arenas buzzing with buzzer-beating shots. It has fueled improbable comebacks.

“No, I can’t imagine basketball without the 3-point shot,” said Prairie girls coach Hala Corral said. “It seems like it has always been a part of the game.”

A different game

Sonny Long is the 10th winningest coach in Oregon prep basketball history, going 429-248 from 1966 to 1995.

While most coaches and players today can’t imagine basketball without the 3-point shot, Long remembers a much different game.

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“You would work the ball until you got a good shot,” he said. “You’d usually try to get a closer shot.”

In 1987, Long remembers some coaches being skeptical of the new rule. Some worried it would lead to a breakdown in the fundamentals in the post and mid-range game.

But Long could see the benefits of the new rule as well.

“It opened a spot for a player who could score from out there,” he said. “I would see opposing players making shots from out there in warmups. But once the game began, they wouldn’t be in the starting lineup. After the three-point shot came along, those players became starters.”

Long’s son, David Long, now coaches a player at Columbia River who counts the 3-pointer among his go-to shots. Jacob Hjort, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, is on pace to finish his career as the No. 2 leading scorer in program history.

The Western Oregon University commit shot better than 40-percent from 3-point range last year while averaging 18 points per game.

His freshman year, Hjort was much shorter and skinnier. His coach said he wouldn’t have made the varsity team had he not been a good 3-point shooter.

“It would have been different,” Hjort said. “I don’t think I would have played much on varsity. That’s what I was put in for my freshman year, to make open shots and be the guy the defense didn’t know about.”

The experience of playing on varsity as a freshman helped mold Hjort into the college-bound player he has become. He became a starter for the final five games of his freshman season after another player was injured.

“It was crucial,” Hjort said. “The fact that coach Long had so much confidence in me to be the first guy off the bench. He knew I was ready to play.”

Union, which reached the Class 4A state championship game last season, uses the 3-pointer as much as any team in the area.

Last season, 146 of Combs’ 276 field goal attempts were from 3-point range, where he made 40 percent of his shots.

For Reznick, 170 of his 266 field goal attempts came from 3-point range. Reznick and Combs each made 59 3-pointers en route to earning first-team all-league honors.

“If there wasn’t a 3-point line, I don’t know if a lot of people would be able to play,” said Reznick, who like Combs stands just under 6-foot. “Being a smaller guy, you always have to have a shot so you can spread the floor.”

But it isn’t just guards who use the 3-point shot to boost their value. Prairie’s 6-foot-3 post Brooke Walling dominates in part because of her prowess from behind the arc.

Last season’s All-Region player of the year as a sophomore, Walling averaged 19.2 points in five postseason games, in which she shot 60 percent from 3-point range. She made six of seven 3-pointers in Prairie’s final game at regionals.

“Most big kids can’t guard her outside,” said Corral. “It opens up the whole offense. It makes us not predictable.”

The changing game is why Walling wanted to add the 3-pointer to her arsenal upon entering high school.

“It’s a big thing because I want to play college basketball,” said Walling. “I might be a big kid here, but in college I won’t be the tallest. Being able to step outside and shoot is a big thing for me.”

The 3-point shot was a big reason King’s Way Christian boys coach Daven Harmeling made an impact while playing for Washington State from 1994-99. He ranks 15th in WSU history in 3-pointers made and 10th all time in 3-point percentage (.388).

“For a lot of bigs, the game has changed,” he said. “Anybody can become a good 3-point shooter if they have good form and learn to shoot inside out. Start from 10 feet, then 15 feet, then work back.”

Harmeling pointed to King’s Way grad Kienan Walter, now a sophomore at North Dakota. At 6-foot-8, he played post but was also one of his team’s best 3-point shooters. The two-time Trico League MVP averaged 23.6 points a game as a junior, tops among 1A players in the state.

It isn’t just offenses that have undergone a transformation because of the 3-pointer. The sweeping changes have also been mirrored in defensive approaches to guarding the outside shot.

“Everything is predicated on the three,” said Conley, the Union boys coach. “It’s how you set up your defense. It opens up the court completely.”

Perimeter defenders can’t sag off outside shooters. They must close quickly and get a hand in the shooter’s face, all while not allowing that shooter to drive by them.

That’s why Combs looks to knock down a few 3’s early in each game.

“It makes everything else a lot easier, such as driving and passing,” Combs said. “You feel like guys can’t guard you if you’re hitting your shot.”

The Steph Curry effect

The scene has played thousands of times on television. More relevantly, it has been viewed millions of times online by the next generation of basketball players.

Golden State star Stephen Curry launches a shot from well behind the 3-point arc. Nothing but net. The arena erupts.

Today’s kids no longer want to “Be Like Mike,” as those in Michael Jordan’s heyday of the 1990s did. After all, kids can’t dunk like Air Jordan.

But they can all launch a 3-pointer. Coaches see more kids at the youngest levels trying to mimic Curry by launching deep shots, sometimes with two hands.

It’s not necessarily a good thing.

“What I’m worried about is when you have third, fourth and fifth graders trying to hoist up 3-pointers instead of developing their shooting form,” said Conley, the Union boys coach. “If you’re taking those shots before you’re strong enough, you can develop really bad form.”

Corral has had two daughters named AP state player of the year while playing for Prairie. In 2012, Ashley Corral became the all-time 3-point leader at the University of Southern California. Her younger sister, Heather, shot a team-best 43.6 percent from 3-point range (41-94) last season as a University of Washington senior.

Corral said there was no secret to her daughters’ 3-point success, just lots of time.

“You have to take hundreds of 3-point shots a day,” she said. “Ashley, when she was a freshman, was not a great 3-point shooter. She would carve out time before each practice to work on it.”

Combs and Reznick estimate they each take between 200 and 300 3-pointers a day. That is aided by a machine they call “the gun,” which passes balls out to a shooter in rapid succession.

Those hundreds of shots a day are all about developing muscle memory.

“If we need to change something in our shot we’ll do it in practice,” Reznick said. “When the game comes, we’re just shooting and not thinking about it.”

“You can’t think too much,” Combs added. “I’ve been in slumps where I’ve thought about it. It doesn’t help. You’ve just got to let it fly and be confident in it.”

The future of threes

The 3-pointer now rules basketball. But will it always?

Harmeling, the King’s Way coach, can see the game evolving in two directions. Shooters, he said, are becoming better thanks to technology that analyzes everything from a player’s shot arc to their shooting angle.

As shooters become more effective, Harmeling could see the high school game one day adopting the college 3-point line, which is one foot beyond the high school line.

That could lead to a renaissance in the role of the big man. Regardless of whether the high school 3-point line is ever moved back, Harmeling said a skilled post players will always be an asset.

“People forget what it’s like to have a dominant big man,” he said. “I believe that if Shaquille O’Neal in his prime were in the game today, he would revolutionize the game again.”

Long, at Columbia River, doesn’t see the 3-point line moving back anytime soon. He said it’s at a good length now for both the boys and girls game.

But whatever the future holds, the impact of a one-inch-thick stripe 19 feet, 9 inches from the hoop has had an undeniable effect.

“Everyone used to have three posts and two guards,” Conley said. “Now, your (forwards) have to be able to shoot from outside.”

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